General Motors had a strong 2023 in the United States, increasing its sales by 14.1% and holding onto its market share lead, ahead of Toyota and Ford. The opposite is true in China. This is not great, at least if you’re General Motors.
Welcome to The Morning Dump, which is going to be a bit too true to its name as I dump a bunch of bad news on you. I’ll start with the GM news in China and then transition to air quality violations for Stellantis from its Jefferson North plant for a surprising and not-great reason. This next news is maybe only a bummer if you’re looking at it from the perspective of Fisker, but the company is abandoning its pure direct-to-consumer model for dealer sales.
You know what? That’s too many bummers. I’m a bummer. Here’s some good news: IROC might be coming back. The International Race of Champions, y’all.
GM’s Biggest Market Is No More
There was a time when General Motors was selling so many cars in China. All the cars. At its peak in 2017, Chinese consumers purchased around 4 million cars from GM annually. In fact, China has been the biggest market for cars from General Motors (and its partner companies) for more than a decade.
No more. Here’s the limited sales report from General Motors, and it shows 2.1 million vehicles delivered, a drop of almost half from the peak and down about 8.7% from last year’s already weak year.
Unsurprisingly, the best-performing brand in China remains the SAIC-GM-Wuling joint venture, which offers a bunch of small electric vehicles and city cars like the Wuling Mini EV city car (GM’s best-selling car in China). Even with a bunch of new models, SAIC-GM-Wuling was relatively flat at just 1.2 million units.
Buick is historically one of the most popular car brands in China, and even it has slumped, down to about 517,000 units, which is a year-over-year decrease of 20%. Cadillac, too, dropped 5.7%.
If there’s one bright spot it’s in electrified vehicles, which Chinese consumers want and GM is now offering in more flavors with the introduction of Ultium-based vehicles. Last year, SAIC-GM managed to double its EV sales there according to Automotive News.
So, why is it bad that GM sells more cars in America than in China besides the obvious? The longstanding advantage that General Motors had in China over the competition was its brands. Buick still means something, but right now Chinese consumers have more choices when it comes to domestic vehicles that aren’t also-ran clones. The Buick badge may carry some cachet, but consumers seem equally as enamored with BYD (brands like Porsche and Bentley seem to be doing ok, for now).
The only brand that’s not falling in China is the one that’s predominantly Chinese-branded.
In addition to introducing more PHEVs and EVs, the GM plan seems to be one that’ll be familiar to Americans. From GM:
The Durant Guild, GM’s premium import business in China, will start taking pre-orders of two iconic full-size SUVs – the Chevrolet Tahoe and GMC Yukon – this year.
Hell yeah, big trucks! No one builds a big truck-like SUV like GM. I’ve got an Escalade with Super Cruise right now and it is fantastic.
The Weird Reason Why Stellantis Screwed Up Its Plant Emissions
Making cars can be a nasty business, whether you’re building a gas-guzzling SUV or a Tesla EV. One of the biggest sources of noxious fumes is the paint process. It’s amazing that a modern car can drive through rain, snow, salt, sleet, sand, and carwashes and maintain its luster for years. That comes with a price, and the price can sometimes be paid by people who live around car plants as this report from The Detroit News makes clear.
The plant in question is the Stellantis Jefferson North facility, which is permitted by state regulators to emit 4.8 pounds of volatile organic compounds per vehicle over a 12-month rolling period, but the plant released about 5.01 pounds per paint job for a chunk of last year.
The reason? From that Detroit News piece:
Reduced production volume in 2022 was to blame for the above-allowable emissions, Stellantis spokesperson Jodi Tinson said in an email.
“Our painting processes and emissions controls were functioning properly, and there was no increased exposure risk to the community,” Tinson wrote. “We have implemented improvements and process changes that we are confident have brought our numbers back into compliance.”
The cause was just that the plant made fewer cars, therefore Stellantis couldn’t get the average per-vehicle-emission in the right zone. Is this a weird strike outcome? Obviously, it’s not the fault of the strikers but of Stellantis for not adjusting its practices to meet the average. According to the company and regulators, Stellantis is back in the acceptable zone, though the company will have to pay a fine.
Fisker: Ok, We’ll Use Dealers
It’s always fun to talk to Autopian cofounder Beau about his view of the larger car market because his perspective as both a dealer and a member of Ford’s product council gives an insight and perspective I don’t have (He refuses to tell us secrets to publish, sorry!). His view of the Tesla direct-to-consumer model has long been that, while it works well for Tesla, it would be harder for newer EV companies to break into the market without dealers.
Time has borne out that prediction. Last week, VinFast announced its first batch of dealers in the United States. Now, Fisker has decided to also go with a hybrid-direct sales model. Here’s what Fisker had to say:
“As we saw throughout 2023, the EV market has changed dramatically. As a high-growth startup, Fisker is transforming its strategic efforts by putting in place the brand accessibility and sales channels required to satisfy increasing demand for the Fisker Ocean and to prepare for launch of additional future models. As a result, we are evolving our business model and intend to add as many as 50 dealer partners in the US and Canada and a similar number of dealer locations in Europe this year. In keeping with our asset light strategy, I expect the Dealer Partnership model should enable Fisker to expand its sales and delivery network at a faster pace.”
Fisker always seems to be a good news/bad news company. On the one hand, I think the company’s current and future products look good. I’m also a believer in the outsourced production model for EV startups. On the other hand, the company reportedly isn’t meeting its sales goals and goes through Chief Financial Offers like I go through luxury SUV press cars.
So what can we expect from this dealership partnership?
The Dealer Partnership model combines the goal of offering our customers no-haggle pricing on Fisker vehicles (where permitted) while also providing our dealer partners with larger market territories, so they can maintain pricing without concern for local competition. The company has been in discussions with numerous potential dealers since late November 2023.
I suppose this means that, unlike VinFast, we won’t see two dealers like 15 miles apart.
Hell Yeah IROC Is Coming Back
Racing legend Ray Evernham, one of the most successful crew chiefs in NASCAR history, and a venture capitalist/gentleman racer by the name of Rob Kauffman who was born in Sharon, Connecticut (home of Lime Rock Park), have purchased the rights to the International Race of Champions name, aka IROC.
I loved IROC growing up as it brought a bunch of racers from different racing disciplines together to compete in similarly spec’d cars. It was so much fun as a support race and it was great to see Rusty Wallace shove his Camaro’s nose right into Dale Earnhardt’s rear while Hurley Haywood tried to pass both of them. And then Bobby Labonte and Al Unser, Jr. would work together to get to the front. Just watch the race above, it’s so good.
Sadly, the last race was in 2006
According to a press release, the new IROC series will try to have an event in 2024 with some historic IROC race cars. Bring it on!
What I’m Listening To While Writing This
“You’ve Come A Long Way Baby” by Fatboy Slim.
The Big Question
What’s the best generation of IROC race car? I’m partial to the late ’80s Camaros, obviously.
Now how does the new dealer new car thing work? With unable to meet production demands with low pressure sales do they still sell the dealership rights? Who buys them with no guarantee they last a year? Fifty new dealers do they get any lot models or is it just a kiosk take an order receive the car sell at a mark up and handle any post production issues or warranty repairs? Seems like a lot of legal work.
My goodness, those “Praise You” dancers are so bad, they almost come full circle back to good. Almost. Thanks for the laughter you provided me today!
Feels weird to fine a company for having lower total emissions for the year. I get why they do it per-vehicle because when the plant is busy they probably can’t keep it under a given absolute maximum, but still weird.
My takeaway from VinFast embracing the dealer model is that dealers are good at pushing bad cars. Less so with Fisker as far as I can tell, but the company has some serious baggage so again I can see people being uncomfortable buying direct from them. It’s also not clear whether adding dealers will help either of them or if it’s a desperate ploy to increase sales that will ultimately fail.
Yay now maybe they can bring back the Camaro IROC-Z with T-TOPS 😀
T-Tops FTW. Love ’em.
Usually after a while you know where to expect the leaks and can plan accordingly.
I liked the idea of IROC, it is a driver not a who has the most money to throw at a vehicle. I think the only choice you had were tires.
No choice on tires. Or anything else.
I though they could choose Goodyear or Hoosier, otherwise all the same car. My memory is a bit fuzzy further back than breakfast.
I’ll have to also go with the Camaro IROC-Z. When they came out with the Daytona IROC RT I was like, that’s weird, and also that’s not right. Like calling a Lumina 2-door a Monte Carlo.
My thought on Fisker, and Rivian and any independent EV companies except Tesla, is I’m wondering when the big makes will be looking to actually buy some of them out. Instead of having to redo all their stuff, and if Fisker is producing stuff ok, but is cheap enough, maybe GM will just drop their Ultium experiment and go with that, ready made EV production line, and don’t have to mess with their existing stuff.
The “big makes” blew all their $ on buying self driving/AI/tech companies and funding that development so no more $ left for things that don’t make money now. If any of the indy EV companies we’re into big giant trucks, well then its a diff story.
But I have wondered the same thing why no ICE manufacturer hasn’t bought Tesla, Fisker, Lucid, Rivian, etc…. Not a partnership, just full buy & merge. The big 3 rather reinvent the EV wheel and screw it up themselves.
Yeah I think the Tesla stock price is a keeping them save, but Rivian, Fisker, Lordstown if they’re into gambling, not sure why GM or Ford hasn’t just got out their paycheck and boom, instant Silverado or Acadia EVs.
Hey! Phrasing!
Matt did state it clearly in the intro…
“I’m a bummer.”
“Here’s the limited sales report from General Motors”
From this link I learned that GM still builds a Chevy Monza.
“Fisker always seems to be a good news/bad news company.”
What’s weird is that Fisker sold twice as many cars in ’23 as Lucid, and yet if you believe the typical stock price-oriented headlines, Fisker is circling the drain. For what it’s worth, as far as electric SUVs go, the Ocean looks pretty cool. I hope they stick around for a while.
“Racing legend Ray Evernham … [has] purchased the rights to the International Race of Champions name, aka IROC.”
My immediate reaction to this was, “that makes perfect sense”. Consider that SRX, which was co-founded by Evernham, essentially operates as a modern take on IROC; it would be a logical re-brand. But then why would Evernham want to compete using IROC against SRX, of which he is still an investor? The all-star concept probably isn’t big enough for both.
Fisker doesn’t have the financial might of Saudi Arabia behind them.
That’s a fair point. Sales have to account for something though. According to the figures I have access to, Fisker has matched Lucid’s two-year totals in less than one, and sell at a more accessible price, in a hotter market segment. As long as Fisker doesn’t completely bungle this, there’s more upside for them. And I say that as someone who wants to see Lucid succeed as well.
Ray has no financial interest in SXR anymore.
Well it does seem everyone loses money on every EV they sell so maybe lower sales is more profitable?
When you do the accounting for the first year of production, this is true that a company loses money on their EVs. Recouping the $1+ billion cost to build a car starting with a napkin sketch all the way through full production and everything that entails to getting them sold to customers can take years. Any car, regardless of powertrain.
This was the case for Tesla, taking a massive loss on every one sold, and now they have the highest per-unit margins in the industry. It will take the other manufacturers no less than 5 years to recover their initial investments, probably closer to 10.
Think you’ll enjoy watching an IROC race? Try MX-5 cup!
The MX-5 CUP is the best racing to view on the interwebs. Hands-down. No pit stops, just a timed 45 minute sprint on the best road courses in North America. All cars come out of the same shop and it’s not uncommon to see the top 3 drivers all finish within a single cars’ length for the checkered flag (and miata’s aren’t that long!).
Very competitive with everything from rookies to veteran races trading paint, plus they race for REAL MONEY with Mazda putting up over $1M overall! It’s a great program and US car culture would do well to support it as it feeds professional racing.
The races usually are the day or two before major events – and the same commentators and camera crews covering things like 24 hours of Daytona cover the MX-5 pre races with all the enthusiasm and professionalism you could want. It’s great, free streamed racing. No sign up required (and the recorded races can be found on YouTube after the race).
Most fun 45 minutes you’ll have as a viewer. IMSA had live free viewing.
https://www.mx-5cup.com/
(full disclosure – I have a 91 NA BRG and a 2010 PRHT NC with added Fab-9 turbo kit).
I see your MX-5 Cup, and raise you Moto3. I enjoy all tiers of MotoGP competition, but Moto3 is pretty much insane most of the time.
However, I watch a lot a racing, and am always looking for new, interesting series, so I appreciate the tip. I’ll check it out. 😉
I’m really struggling to imagine Fisker sticking around for too long. The actual product they’ve delivered seems pretty decent, and I honestly think it looks good. One of my neighbors just bought an Ocean and I’ve stopped to look at it a few times. It’s a striking car, and when you combine that with the above average range estimates and gaggle of unique features I can see why they’re appealing to people.
But when it comes to actual car company stuff they’re a mess, and killing their direct sales approach is a bad look. I also noodled around on their website recently and it was unusable. There have also been a lot of documented bugs and assorted issues with their first batch of Oceans.
Some of that is to be expected with a first gen car…but the issue is that the Ocean is a $50-$70,000 car when equipped with the desirable features. At that price point you’re going up against more established brands that had the fine details sorted yesterday.
I wish them the best but I just don’t see long term viability…although I DO see some serious opportunity long term for folks who specialize in keeping EVs running since there will inevitably wind up being so many orphans on the road in the future that don’t have any manufacturer support. Hell if you’re a youngin who hasn’t picked a career or someone who wants to make a switch I think there’s going to be a lot of opportunity in keeping EVs running down the road.
I prefer Weapon of Choice with Christopher Walken. It’s said he did his own dancing, though I’m pretty sure he can’t fly.
Otherwise, not really that bummed. The Chinese still like Buicks. So do I.
No mullet here, but definitely the 3rd gen Camaro
Damn straight. *strokes mullet with Iron Maiden playing on cassette*
80s metal never required use of the complete band name – just the second word. Such as Maiden, Priest etc.
As far as 80s metal goes, I’m quite partial to Bathory.
I’ll hang with Lita, thank you very much.
Folks, love you, but – the auto-playing video was already a little gauche, but now that it hops into the corner and follows me like a lost puppy when I scroll past, it’s downright tacky.
I’m noticing that some videos slow down the page down considerably. I’ll scroll through an article and suddenly get stuck while the page loads and catches up, and the video itself is pixellated like it’s buffering. If I just click “comments” to jump down to those, no issues. I can’t pause it either because it starts autoplaying after you scroll away and then back past it again (say if I wanted to go up and reread something again). It’s not every video, but the DT Tacoma video from a few weeks ago (not this one) was such an example.
The prospect of selling China our glorious body on frame luxo-barges is hilarious to me. Truly GM’s flow chart for any problem at all must start and end with selling ginormous high margin SUVs.
Since China (and many other countries) tax cars based on engine displacement, the tax on a Suburban must be off the charts.
And that’s on top of the 15 percent tariff on imported vehicles in general
I’m not sure getting back into IROC is a good idea, given the current situation in the Middle East and all.
I never knew what IROC-Z meant on those awesome Camaros! Neato.
Also, a quibble.The headline is kinda wonky, I read it like this:
GM Sold More Cars In America Than China [did], Which Is Bad
but clearly you intended to say this:
GM Sold More Cars In America Than [in] China, Which Is Bad
As GM is underperforming in China now, I suppose we can expect Mary Barra to announce a total withdraw from the country pretty soon right? Seems to be her MO whenever an overseas operation runs into a rocky patch
Back in the 2009 meltdown era, GM told us that Oldsmobile and Pontiac were given the axe and Buick was kept alive because “China”. Given this new information, when will Buick be closing?
More importantly, when will Pontiac be returning?
And Saturn! Don’t forget Saturn!
They’d already killed Saturn before they killed Saturn, except the Sky, the Sky was something special.
I loved Saturn in the 90s and I wish I could make the case for them returning, but I just think it would be rebadged Traxes all the way down.
They’d be fantastic plastic Traxes.
Her green plastic watering can….for her fake Chinese rubber plant….in the fake plastic Trax
Saturn, Pontiac, and Radiohead in the same thread. I am home!
Anyone else think the EV’s from GM should have all been Saturn’s ?
I always thought it was interesting that when GM had to offload everything because of the bankruptcy, they held onto the Pontiac trademarks and associated stuff. With all the new unknown brands suddenly appearing on the market, a rebirth of one that people still remember would be kind of timely.
But, I have multiple Pontiacs, and it’s probably just a pipe dream.
My first three vehicles, including the first two I bought with my own money and the first car I ever bought new were all Pontiacs. I love them, but I fear you’re right.
Two Cutlasses and a Pontiac were my dad’s first three, and then along with the multiple Saturns he had as commuters we also had a Plymouth and another Pontiac as family cars. We had more brands they don’t make any more than ones they do. Other than VW, I think names that begin after the letter N seems to be the cutoff point, anything we’ve had from Nissan-back is still around (never had a Mercury).
My old Pontiac Vibe will probably always be The Car I remember the most fondly. As a teen, I wanted a Sunfire soooo bad.
Bring back Pontiac!
Buick sales were up 61% in 2023. They’re dancing on the graves of their fallen stablemates.
Oldsmobile was discontinued long before GM’s bankruptcy, they needed to cull a brand to reflect declining market share, and chose Oldsmobile instead of Saturn because it had less single-franchise dealerships and was it therefore cheaper to buy them out.
But, Pontiac sold 283,000 vehicles globally in the last full year before its discontinuation was announced, Oldsmobile sold 352,000 a year at the time its announcement was made – Buick sold 674,000 vehicles last year
I always wondered why they didn’t keep Buick for China, Saturn (or even Pontiac) for the US, keep them both as Vauxhalls with different badges. GM has always been good at selling the same car many different places in the world by just changing out badges.
I mean the first year of IROC had the Porsche RSR’s, then the Camaro’s which were all Bitchin’
But no insurance to match!
Upvote for allowing me to remember the The Dead Milkmen.